250 individuals, analyzing the quantitative data of their life histories by
qualitative means. Emergent among her interpretative findings was the
conclusion that humans are essentially motivated by the will to mark their
existence by achievement of one or another variety and that this
imprimatur rises from life-long processes of expansion and restriction of
possibility and competence.

The prodigious study of human development during the first three
quarters of the twentieth century did not, alas, continue to build, at least
in any cohesive manner, on the sensible pluralism of Buhler's theory and
research methodology. Specialists focusing on a particular phase of life,
a functional domain, or on the nosological features of development gone
awry have pursued their interests in relative isolation from one another
and without benefit of any unifying theoretical consensus. Such
continues to be the case despite periodic integrative efforts such as
those of Neugarten, Baltes, and Schaie.

Before World War II, developmental psychologists were primarily
devoted to descriptive observations of infants and children, longitudinal
designs in time providing adolescent data as well. While G. S. Hall's
publication in 1922 of wide-ranging, miscellaneous remarks on senes-
cence initiated further enquiry into the associated matters of aging, and
psychoanalytic theorizing drew further attention to the problems of adult
adjustment as a function of mother-child socialization processes,
scholarly vision was still primarily directed toward the explanation of early
developmental characteristics, in large measure for the purposes of
refining child guidance procedures. Practical objectives implied by the
study of mental measurement, clinical genetics, educational psychology,
and behaviorism led collectively to an atmosphere in which, given the
technological advances made during and after World War II, increasing
scientific rigor could be, needed to be, and was applied to the research
that would inform derivative public instruction, primarily with regard to
raising and educating children and adolescents.

As Americans next (and rather belatedly, at mid-century) came to
appreciate Piaget's discoveries relative to language and cognitive
development, quantitative investigations in these domains soon became
the pre-eminent objective of developmental psychology, again
strengthening the preoccupation with early life processes. Constructive
theories in other domains (e.g., moral, social, and ego) were also
generated as the heuristic appeal of stage models increased their
popularity in the advanced classroom.

Pedagogical advantages notwithstanding, stage theories have
presented certain methodological and theoretical problems, particularly
from the perspective of developmentalists interested in the entire life
course. Similar to the maturational and biomedical models they
resemble, stage models imply that development in adulthood conforms to
an evaluative trajectory, the distal end of which is either characterized by
decline and constriction or is thought inapplicable to late adulthood on
the assumption that optimal growth is achieved at some earlier phase in
life. Precise replication and definitive empirical confirmation of stage
models, however, have not been easy or possible, which has rendered

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